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Achieving competitive advantage for construction companies: Navigating the realm of corporate social responsibility

  • Hui GUO (Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, Hong Kong Metropolitan University) ;
  • Meng YE (School of Management Science and Real Estate, Chongqing University)
  • Published : 2024.07.29

Abstract

This paper aims to ascertain corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitive advantage relationship with empirical evidence to help achieve competitive advantage of China's construction companies. Using a panel data set of 85 listed Chinese construction companies and 691 firm-year observations over the period from 2010 to 2019, the concurrent and lagged effects of CSR on competitive advantage were tested by using both static and dynamic panel regression models. The empirical analyses discover that there exists a concurrently positive impact of CSR on competitive advantage of China's listed construction companies. Competitive advantage in the prior year has a positive influence on itself in the current year. This empirical finding suggests that companies should engage in CSR activities continuously to sustain their competitive advantage. A competitive contractor is likely able to maintain its competitive position by sustaining its strong financial resources, innovative capabilities, and good corporate image. This study provides Chinese construction business with evidence to develop or fine-tune their CSR programmes for sustaining their competitive advantages.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [Grant ID: 72301045] is gratefully acknowledged.

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